“Another fire department is going to respond, so they’ll have a triage to this emergency service, but it would not affect the insured,” he said.

But he pointed out it would affect response time, which could lead to more extensive property damage and, potentially, loss of life.

If the situation lasted weeks instead of days, would premiums rise?

“The rates are not set in that short of a time period,” Maranger said.

From a municipal perspective, would insurance coverage and rates be affected by lack of local firefighting ability?

West Perth chief administrator Jeff Brick said he doesn’t believe that would be the case.

“We carry a full range of insurance to insure our business, but I would doubt it would affect our insurance rate for our corporate insurance carrier,” he said.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal didn’t immediately respond to questions about the provincial law.

But from an insurance perspective, Maranger said the province would step in during an extended absence since firefighting is a ­mandatory emergency service.

Of Ontario’s 449 fire departments, 226 are volunteer-based, according to 2016 figures provided by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Of the province’s 30,000-plus ­firefighters at the time, nearly two-thirds were volunteers.

Unlike the name suggests, volunteer firefighters are paid but in most cases they sign up to be of service to the community, not for the cash.

“I know from my fire department, the firefighters will tell you to a person that they do it for the vocation, not for the money,” Brick said.

“It’s a very strong sense of community, and I’m sure that’s what the struggle was with the fire service members in North Huron that withdrew their services.”